Think on these questions as you dwell in Acts 14:19-28:

1. In this passage, Paul faces extreme persecution, even to the point of being stoned and left for dead. Yet, miraculously, he rises and continues preaching the Gospel. What does this account reveal about the resilience and determination of early Christian missionaries in the face of adversity? How can we draw inspiration from their unwavering commitment to spreading the Good News?

2. The chapter emphasizes the inevitability of tribulations for those who seek to advance the Kingdom of God. How does this perspective challenge common misconceptions about the Christian journey? How can understanding that tribulations are part of our calling encourage believers to persevere and trust in God's sovereignty?

3. The passage concludes with Paul and Barnabas returning to Antioch, providing a report on their missionary journey and declaring how God has opened doors for faith among the Gentiles. What lessons can we glean from their approach to reporting back to the church community? How might this inform our own practice of sharing testimonies and updates about the work of God in our lives and ministries?

Transcript:

 As we come to the end of this chapter, we're seeing something that we have seen before, persecution for the disciples. Now, we have Paul here at Lystra, and something very bad happens to him, right? He is stoned, and they are doing this to try and stop the message of the gospel. But what is the message that we've been seeing in the book of Acts so far, the message of the gospel can't be stopped.

It is a work of God. If the people who were the people of God, the Jews, if they reject it, it'll go to the Gentiles. And mind you, when we say that the Jews are rejecting the gospel, most of the people, many of the people coming to faith, in these cities are Hebrew Jewish people, right? But generally speaking, they're rejecting these people who are in charge, these people who are capable of persecuting the disciples.

They are rejecting the gospel and it's going forth to the Gentiles. And that's what we see here. That's the mission that Paul and Barnabas have been on. Well, Paul is stoned. He is basically beaten to it within an inch, maybe even a centimeter of his life. He's drug out of the city. They think he's dead, but the disciples gather about him.

He rises up, enters the city. Uh, he keeps going. Now you sort of can imply it doesn't say that there's a miraculous healing or miraculous protection here, but you can sort of imply it in the text, right? that they supposed he was dead. He was on the verge of death, but then, but then he gets up.  Boy, he's either a really good actor or he has protection from God.

The gospel is going to continue. God is protecting Paul and Barnabas at this time, and the gospel is continuing to go out. And so, we read in verse 21, they preach the gospel to that city, they make disciples, they return to Lystra, they go to Iconium, they go to Antioch. And they're strengthening the souls of the disciples, and they're telling them to continue.

And here's an interesting line. Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And the idea here is not that they are earning it through their tribulations, but they're saying, as we work, as we do this work of God, we are going to be persecuted. As we continue to strive to do the will of God, it is not going to be easy.

And we've seen this before in the book of Acts, this idea that, that when you come to faith, it's, it's not easy. You know, we kind of want to think that, hey, we've come to faith, we're doing the right things, God is going to bless us. But that's not what we see in the New Testament. It is a struggle. It is an important message that people do not.

Want other people to hear and they're going to try and stop them So they must endure these tribulations to proclaim the gospel that it might go forth and more people might come to faith  and notice in verse 23  They appoint elders in every church and they commit them to the Lord to whom they believed and they move on they are Establishing churches here and remember there's Hebrew Jewish people coming to faith.

There are Gentiles coming to faith These are the churches that are establishing with those who believe, and they are establishing the churches and moving on. They're keeping going through all of this. Well, they go back to Antioch. And so, this chapter ends up with him going back to the place. Or a story about them going back to the place.

where they were commissioned from, where they were sent out from. And they're bringing back this message that the gospel is going forth. And we notice in verse, verse 27, When they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he'd opened a door for faith to the Gentiles.

Remember the shift that we see. Have been seeing that this shift the gospel goes to the Jews and now it's going out into the whole world This is the expansion of the church the expansion of the Kingdom of God that is happening And Paul has come back to the place that sent him out and saying God is doing a great thing.

God is doing a great thing. He is sending the word of the gospel out into the world to all different people groups. These people are coming to faith. God is doing this. Again, we've seen this before, but notice who's doing the work. Just as always, it is God doing the work, and they're putting their trust in him to do it.

And we, as we saw with the stoning of Paul, as we've seen in other instances, the gospel will not be stopped by the work of men.  It is going to go forth because it is the work of God. And then we see in verse 28, They remain no little time with the disciples. In other words, they’re ready to go. They're continuing to spread the gospel.

They're continuing to do their work. Despite everything that has happened from them, to them, despite all the obstacles they've had, had put up, the roadblocks, they are continuing. They're not going to sit around and talk about it. They're going to go do it. And so that's a good reminder for us as we head into a new year.

May we get up and go out and do it and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because we know that God does his work. He brings people to faith. He brings them to faith and trust in Jesus. He gives them the gift of his perfect righteousness and he saves them by grace through faith. So may we be like Paul and Barnabas.

May we follow their examples. May we get up and go out and share Christ in our world today.